Recruiting and Technology: Happy Marriage or More Work?

With countless new technology platforms available for recruiting, from sourcing to onboarding, you’d think that the process would become less personal. However, according to this post on TheNextWeb, “The recruiting world is getting bigger. And smaller. There’s a strange irony at play here: as recruiting begins to shift toward a more data-driven model, the entire process of recruiting is beginning to feel more authentic, transparent, and human.”

Jennifer McClure, President and CEO, Unbridled Talent LLC & DisruptHR LLC, mentions the human-tech combination. “Recruiters who can successfully utilize technology to identify the people that are the most viable options for the roles that they’re recruiting for, and then can engage and connect with them will see great results!”

And from China Gorman, Advisor, Speaker, Author: “Identifying recruiting technology that ensures more effective and efficient processes while enabling more human relationships will win the hearts and minds of users on both sides of the recruiting equation.”

Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) emerged as a distinct category of software in the 1990s. Like most software in that period, it was installed on a customer’s server, and focused on enterprise companies. The defining company of this period was Taleo, which successfully navigated the move to SaaS (in Wave 2) and was acquired by Oracle for $1.9 billion. It still dominates the market with 36 percent share. (Source: TechCrunch)

Jacqui Maguire, Recruiting Manager, Greenhouse Software, said, “now that many recruiting teams established a more structured recruiting process, they are able to collect useful data that will help guide decision making going forward. For example, tracking candidate quality by source can help guide which sources a team uses in the future, and either save money on previously unsuccessful sources or create a case for increased budget to use the more effective sources.”

Rita VanderWaal, Center of Excellence Channels/Attraction Strategy, Talent Collective, also mentions tech adaption. “Technology platforms now allow an efficient way to promote employees and hiring managers and this is going to become essential to sell your corporate culture to those interested in learning more about you.”

The theme of technology in the recruiting space is a hot topic, so we reached out to a few more experts to ask: “How has technology improved your recruiting process?” Read the responses below:

“Technology is everything to modern recruiters. It’s not just about process, it’s the core of connecting to and engaging top talent effectively and efficiently. Recruiting has evolved, and continues to at the speed of light. You have nanoseconds to capture someone’s attention. Without technology that enables powerful relevant messaging and access to the right people at the right time, well…there will be no acquiring of talent!” ~ Julie Chicoine, Principal Talent Advisor, Oracle Talent Advisory, North America

“Technology not only lets me reach out to a larger audience using social media and job boards, it also lets me interview them in different states through video calls without ever leaving the office. In short, technology has changed the field of recruiting dynamically and I for one, never want to go back.” ~ Steven Olsen, Executive Administrator, Bohemian Hotel Savannah Riverfront

“Technology is integral to our recruiting process; we would not be able to have the scope and efficiency to reach 10’s of thousands of prospective candidates every month–from recruitment marketing and application to assessment and interview, everything has been technology enabled.” ~ Gail Rigler, CMO, WorkingSolutions.com

“From a candidate search perspective, ATS integration keeps our recruiters searching within it, decreasing the number of times we require exiting it and log on to multiple search sites. This saves valuable time and helps speed-to-market by creating recruitment process efficiencies.

From a job advertising perspective, being able to track exactly how positions are performing, we can create a strategy for programmatic ad buying that makes the smartest use of our budget to maximize return. This actionable data has resulted in a consistent, significant increase in candidate acquisition, month-over-month, year-over-year.” ~ Dennis Tupper, Recruitment Marketing Strategist, Kelly Services

“We have become more productive! We research companies with a few keystrokes, enabling on-target presentations in our first pass.” ~ Dennis Gros, President, Gros Executive Recruiters

“Technology isn’t just important to our recruiting process, it’s what drives our recruiting growth. Using recruiting technology, we can quickly duplicate job posts for various markets on our website. We can have all our posts automatically picked up and sponsored programmatically. And, we can track candidates with superior accuracy through a customized CRM, which has helped us to meet and exceed our recruiting goals over the past two to three years.” ~ Matt Mackenzie, Internet Marketing Specialist, Platinum Supplemental Insurance

The short wrap up: Recruiting technology has come a long way in a short time. While we’re still catching up with adoption and implementation, tech is an alliance that takes the busy work out of the hands of the recruiter, allowing them more face and personal time with candidates. Technology isn’t depersonalizing the hiring process; it’s actually making it more personal.